First Look: Paulie Gee’s
Arthur Bovino — March 22, 2010
Clockwise from top: The E & O Pizza with Fior di Latte, Marinated Kale, and Guanciale; chef Paul Giannone; Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Brooklyn’s newest pizza drama is playing out in Greenpoint, just blocks from Metropolitan, in a space that was previously a restaurant of a former Top Chef contestant. The new chef is someone with considerably less airtime, a guy from Jersey named Paul Giannone— Paulie Gee.
Until weeks ago, Paulie’s pizza-making was mostly confined to the oven he built in his yard. Now pizza-lovers and aficionados are gathering to see if this former software quality assurance engineer can pull off dreams of joining the City’s elite pizzaiolos. It’s the kind of New York— er— Brooklyn story you can literally sink your teeth into. To learn more about his story, check out this interview.
Recently, we joined Slice’s managing editor, Adam Kuban, at Paulie Gee’s to sample some of this Brooklyn-born dreamer’s early efforts.
Featured Dish: Rustica Pizza
Arthur Bovino — March 08, 2010
Clockwise from top: Manducatis Rustica’s Rustica Pizza. The fireplace at the back of the dining room.
Manducatis has been a Long Island City stalwart almost uninterrupted since 1959. No one is saying it’s the City’s best Italian. But there is still something fun about walking through its non-descript door and into the cascading dining rooms that each feel like secrets. Development may have infiltrated Long Island City, but Manducatis’ owners, the Cerbones, have made their own progress in the past two years. Namely, when their daughter, Chef Gianna Cerbone opened her Italian café nearby: Manducatis Rustica.
There is a doll-house, but thrown together quality to Rustica’s decor. An old oven. Mismatching chairs. Brick walls. There’s a large open doorway to the kitchen. The layout takes a cue from Manducatis, with a working fireplace in the back of the first dining room.
You may have heard about their celebrated calzone, a sauce-covered $15.00 behemoth described as “a pizza folded over on itself.” But there’s also a list of brick oven, Neapolitan-style pizzas. The eponymous pizza pie, the Rustica ($13.00), is dressed with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and a healthy pile of fresh arugula. The dough is chewy and pliable, if not necessarily very crisp. You could see how it would make for a good calzone. For dessert, there’s fresh gelato, and cannolis done the right way— plain or chocolate-dipped, but filled to order. Now that’s Italian…American.
Restaurant: Manducatis Rustica
Address: 46-33 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, NY 11101
Contact: (718) 937-1312
Hours: Mon-Thur, 12:00pm-9:00pm; Fri-Sat, 12:00pm-10:30pm; Sun, 12:00pm-8:30pm.
AlwaysOpinionated: Pizza, Metropolitan vs. Neapolitan
GutterGourmet — December 03, 2009
Left, a Cheese Pie from John’s of Bleecker Street. Right, Pomodorini E Provola Pizza from Kesté.
A few months ago, no less a respected publication than New York Magazine declared that the Neapolitan pizza “revolution” that was sweeping New York City had taken New York City pizza to its zenith in terms of authenticity and greatness. Ed Levine, author of the pizza bible, A Slice of Heaven, bemoaned the sorry state to which the traditional New York City slice had devolved while hailing Una Pizza Napoletana as the new king of New York City pizza. Well, I’m beginning to think that in our quest for “authenticity” we’re losing the great tradition of New York City pizza (and of its New Haven cousin).
I’m here to shout that the Emperor of Napoli has no clothes. The Neapolitan pizza “invasion” is a fad, like frozen yogurt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for authenticity. I’ll take the latest influx of Szechuan restaurants over the chow mein of my youth any day. But pizza is different. New York City has more than 100 years of developing a style of pizza. Are there lousy slices out there? Of course. But changing ingredients to conform to Neapolitan style is not necessarily the best thing for New York City pizza.
Click Here to Read More About New York City's Pizza Style Wars >>
Pie-by-Pie: Osteria (Philadelphia, PA)
The Gluttoness — October 28, 2009
Chef Marc Vetri, who had been the 2005 recipient of the James Beard Award for ‘Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic’ with his eponymous restaurant Vetri in Philadelphia, followed his success by partnering with Jeff Benjamin and Jeff Michaud to open Osteria (view), which quickly received its own recognition: 2008 nomination for the James Beard Award for ‘Best New Restaurant.’
We sampled the menu’s breadth, from a bountiful Antipasti with beets and Brussels sprouts, to a phenomenal Stewed Rabbit Casalinga with pancetta-speckled polenta. But it was ‘Le Pizze’ that stood out, and not just to me, Alan Richman’s roundup of America’s 25 Best Pizzas for GQ Magazine put Osteria at #22. The variety of pies dictated the following Pie-by-Pie, and forced us to forgo a Margherita for more complex creations. All pizzas were served piping hot with crisp bottoms, charcoaled edges and aptly seasoned crusts that were exceptional whether topped with tomato sauce or octopus.
AlwaysInvestigating: Fall Pies
The Gluttoness — October 07, 2009
When most people hear “Fall Pies” pumpkins and pecans probably come to mind. But with the rise of market-driven, Neapolitan-style pizzerias, you’d be easily forgiven for thinking about seasonal ingredients as toppings for pizzas. Here’s a look at some of the autumnal ingredients with which three of New York City’s well-known pizzerias are adorning their pies.
Keste’s Pizza Del Papa: Butternut Squash Cream, Smoked Mozzarella, Artichoke, and Red & Yellow Peppers ($16.00).
As the president of the American Chapter of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, Keste’s (view) Roberto Caporuscio is very aware that a true D.O.C. pie must only contain fresh San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella di bufala. But that doesn’t mean he sticks to convention with every pie. The Pizza Del Papa ($16.00) is topped with butternut squash cream, imported smoked mozzarella, artichoke, and both red and yellow peppers.
Pie-by-Pie: La Pizza Fresca
The Hungry Goat — August 05, 2009
With the proliferation of Neapolitan-style pizzerias in New York City, the debate over who serves the most authentic, wood-oven baked pizza is as hotly contested as where to get the best slice. With the buzz around heavy-hitting newcomers like Motorino and Kesté swelling, AlwaysHungryNY.com decided to see if an originator of Neapolitan-style pizza in New York City, La Pizza Fresca (restaurant page), still held its own. Renowned for being the first New York City restaurant to become certified by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana in 1997, the amount of praise that La Pizza Fresca’s pies has garnered is staggering—most recently including mention in New York Magazine’s Top 20 Pies of the Moment. It makes our negative experience there all the more puzzling.
“La Pizza Fresca” (Tomato Sauce, Bufala Mozzarella, Italian Cherry Tomatoes, Black Olives, Parmigiano Reggiano, & Basil, $18)
The restaurant’s namesake pizza was its best. The sweet, fruity San Marzano tomato sauce starred, acting as a foil to the briny, whole black olives. Slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella added a subtle tang. A meager scattering of cherry tomatoes makes you wonder why they bothered with them at all. Of course, the real draw of a Neapolitan style pizza is the thin crust, and La Pizza Fresca’s limp, chewy base was dangerously close to that of Franny’s, a problem with every pie.
Quattro Formaggi (Bufala Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Fontina & Parmigiano Cheeses, $19)
Billed as featuring bold cheese, their flavors were muted and overshadowed by heavily charred bubbles in the crust. The plump pieces of mozzarella which featured so prominently in the signature La Fresca pie, had melted into obscurity.
AlwaysTraveling: Pizza & Poetry of Da Michele (Naples, Italy)
Arthur Bovino — May 18, 2009
The pizza of Da Michele has inspired glutton and poet alike.
For the pizza lover, a trip to L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele in Naples, Italy, is the ultimate pilgrimage.
There’s little choice here. No extra toppings, just three types of Neapolitan-style pizza: the Marinara (sauce and crust), the Margherita (sauce, cheese, basil and crust), or the Margherita with extra cheese. Five Euros gets you a pizza and a bottle of Orangina within four minutes. Why is it so good? Without adding to the breathless account in Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love”, it’s not hyperbolic to declare this will most likely be the best and most pure pizza you will ever eat. At Da Michele it’s about simplicity, quality and tradition.
Restaurant: L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele (view site)
Address: Via Sersale Cesare, 1, 80139 Napoli, Italy (view map)
AlwaysHungry Grade: A+
AlwaysHungry Recommends: Everything.
The Condurro family has been making fantastic pizza in Naples since 1870. The story goes that Michele Condurro perfected the family art by learning the secrets of dough preparation, kneading and cooking from the pizza masters in Torre Annunziata, a suburb of Naples. In 1906, Michele opened his first pizzeria, which he was forced to move in 1930 to Via Cesare Sersale when the Ascalesi Hospital was under construction. His instructions and philosophy for making true Neapolitan pizza have been continued for five generations. Each component is the essence of what it is meant to be at its highest potential of being. These components interact in a sublime equation, their ratios perfect: charred to non-charred crust, crust to sauce, crust to cheese, and sauce to cheese— the Platonic ideal in pizza form.
Considering Da Michele’s pizzas are virtually edible poems themselves, it’s not surprising that poets were inspired to write about them. Two signs on the wall add to the simple décor (white walls and a religious statue overlooking the pizzaiolos). They feature poems dedicated to the pizzeria’s two types of pizza: ‘A Margarita (To the Margherita) by Gennaro Esposito (left), and ‘A Marinara (To the Marinara) by S. Galante (right). Esposito (1920-2004) was a popular poet who wrote in the Neapolitan dialect about social issues and his memories of “the old Naples.” Galante is harder to find information about, but both poets were said to have been frequent patrons of the pizzeria.
Included below are the poems and their approximate translations (care of Emily Bovino).
Pie-by-Pie: Co.
The Gluttoness & The Hungry Goat — March 24, 2009
Obviously followers of the Pizza Bianca at Sullivan Street Bakery, Jim Lahey’s new pizzeria had the AlwaysHungryNY Council of Eaters eager to try our first pie. Due to the consistently long-lines, we waited until Co. opened for lunch in order to avoid the nighttime madness and slip in for a relaxing afternoon of pizza gluttony. With its modern, industrial aesthetic and boisterous crowd of young-and-old alike, the fun soundtrack set the tone as we were sandwiched between two couples (one of whom was incredibly upset over being charged $54 for 3 glasses of Chardonnay) at the long communal table that runs the length of the restaurant. The special of the day was a “Charcuterie Pie” featuring a sauerkraut base, topped with 3 types of sausage, parmesan, béchamel and spicy mustard. It is important to always note the specials, because when they are well-received, like the Stracciatella, they are added to the daily menu in place of an under-performing pie. Now, to the tasting…
1. Margherita, $13.00 (Tomato, Buffalo Mozzarella, Basil)
Grade: B
It seemed mandatory to start off with the basic. The crust was airy, charred around the edges and the bottom, and doughy on the inside. The tomato was subtle and sweet. The sparse rounds of cheese were mild, but flavorful. Unfortunately, both combined to create a serious waterlog in the center of the pie. More salt would have brightened the whole experience.
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